An ingredient there could be less of? The big, billowy sleeves. Also...

...how closed up and just not fun it is. There are very cool pleats that cover the top of the dress and they were something I wanted to make stand out! Time to get to work!!

The removal of the sleeves from this vintage Chaus dress was the first thing that I wanted to do.

Began to take em off...

...and in just a few minutes the first was off!! The second one followed suit.

I got both ready for the sewing machine!

Now in my sleeve-taking-off process, I found these hidden suckers that were placed at the shoulders to give the sleeve just a bit more lift.

I loved the gathered look and it totally reminded me of the way cloth napkins are sometimes folded on plates at banquet events or weddings. (This girl had her share of waitressing in her day and napkin folding became an art, a tedious one albeit, but an art to say the least...) I thought they'd work as a little cap to the sleeveless action that was going on.

Pinned that down and then got to sewing. My new 'sleeves' were tacked down, my arm holes, as well as a bit of the body that got taken in to fit just a smidge tighter.

As we're winding down, I had to get another one of these in, if only for posterity :) A little cinchy, pinchy, new neckline choreography in the house!!

Once that was complete, I put on my dress, grabbed my mom and headed over to cooking club where we did a pre-Thanksgiving, "Bring your Mother to Cooking Club" day.

A close up of the cinchin'...

The table was set, appetizers (a sigh-worthy baked brie bowl with crumbled nuts/sugar/cinnamon on top) were served, and Italian soda was sipped before we sat down to a mini-Thanksgiving a week in advance!

We got to catch up and hear fun stories of rhinestoned and puffy painted clothes we wore in our youth over pomegranate seed salad and chicken with artichokes :) Perfect way to spend a Sunday evening and close out the weekend.

We even heard fireworks from the neighboring Grove's Christmas Tree lighting celebration which at first made us nervous because we couldn't figure out what it was - we couldn't see anything, we thought that it could have been thunder because of the rains we've been having, but after some Inspector Gadget-ing, we solved the mystery!! Then we had pie :)